Game: Doom: The Boardgame Expansion Set

Thread: My frist deathmatch game.

Trscroggs — 2008-07-28T14:35:29+00:00

Game played: 7-26-08 (late evening)
Total playtime: About 2 hours in 15+ rounds
Map: First Deathmatch map

Players: (The names of the marine powers are probably wrong, but the description of the powers is accurate)
Player 1: (Me) (Assassin - Aimed attacks give +3 damage, +1 range)
Player 2: (Marksmanship - Plus 1 range to all shots, can draw line of sight from any adjacent square.) (Game's owner)
Player 3: (Overkill - Unload gives 2 squares of movement and three attacks instead of zero and two.)

Map description: Basically a square with two branches off the east and west sides. In the center of the square was a passageway linking the east and west sides of the square walls and a half-passage with teleporters also linking the sides. Both the south and north sides had a key and a door; the south the red key and blue door, with the north having the blue key and the red door. The two branching corridors outside the square also had teleporters linking the braches to each other.

Note: In deathmatch rules marines only get one power and 5 health. There is also no normal ammo, rolling a bullet on the dice destroys the weapon instead. Weapons, however, are drawn from a pools that keeps the token on the board for other players to pick up.

Custom rules: Player 2 ruled that pistols had infinite ammo because there was no token for them. Player 2 also decided to play until someone scored 3 kills.

The match started out simply enough, players 1 and 3 started by going to the South and North corridors respectively, while player 2 hung out around western edge. Within a couple of rounds, players 1 and 3 each had a door key and one heavy weapon. Player 2 made the first attack by using marksmanship to shoot around the corner and hit player 1 with a machinegun shot for 3 damage. Player 1 retreated while player 2 headed north towards yellow teleporter. Player 3 went into the eastern corridor and collected a chainsaw and shotgun. Player 1 used the assassin power to shoot a rocket launcher at player 3, but rolled poor damage and was killed by player 3's shotgun the next round. During this time player 2 positioned himself around the yellow teleported and eventually killed player 3 with machine gun.

Player 1 resumed his quest towards the red key, while player 3 got a machine gun. Player 2 continued to wander around, and was killed by player 3 while hanging out around the western corridor.

Player 1 attempted to make it to the Red door, but was wounded by player 3 and then killed by player 2. Player 3 headed for the blue key again. Player 2 got the energy rifle in the center of the board, and then moved east. Player 1 attemptsed to kills player 2 with a grenade; misses and hits player 2 with the scatter, but fails to do enough damage, and is killed by two shots of player 2’s energy rifle, ending the game in player 2’s favor.

What I learned:
1. Marksmanship is a very powerful ability. Not for the built in +1 range, but its ability to draw line of sight from adjacent squares. This ability basically allows a marine to shot around corners and gives an extra +1 to range when used. Our guard actions against it were basically useless as player 2 rarely shot from outside of cover.
2. Overkill is also very nice. If it wasn’t for several misses on player 3’s part, he would have gotten some extra kills with it. His failure to use the chain gun however only hurt his performance.
3. The doors on this map weren’t really worth it. While the contents are very nice, no one who managed to get a key even made it halfway to the corresponding door. This was mostly because there was always someone standing in the corridors that had to be transversed to get to the door, and in another situation the results might be different.

Impressions: I really enjoyed deathmatch. It was faster than an invader scenario and didn’t have the ‘slowly loosing’ feel that came from the last scenario I played. Also the respawning guns made players be a little more free with their guns, with lose felt more like “nuts”, than the scenarios’ “I’m doomed”.

Thread: Re: Any news on the reprint?

jakecarol — 2008-07-26T21:13:17+00:00

I ordered one from The Warstore and got it last week, not sure how long it has been out.

Jake

Thread: Re: Any news on the reprint?

Grommell — 2008-07-06T18:45:15+00:00

I got my Doom EXP reprint alongside my Kingsport Horror preorder when it showed up in Australia, so you should be able to find one.

Thread: Re: Monster Madness!

MrSkeletor — 2008-06-07T00:51:36+00:00

Doom TBG is based on the Doom 3 computer game, which I don't think had the whole 'monsters killing other monsters' think I don't believe. It certainly didn't have the spider mastermind.

Anyway I can't think of an easy way to apply such a rule since the bad guys are a player and not automated. Maybe if the are hit by a fellow invader roll a die, and on a ?? they immediatly attack that invader back?

Thread: Monster Madness!

timex — 2008-06-05T22:15:29+00:00

To start I know that Doom TBG is not DOOM on PC so some things were changed to be able to play DOOM as board game. BUT I remember playing the PC version in which there was this level that you walked into and up from the ceiling droped a Cyber demon AND the Spider mastermind (he's the guy with the Chian gun the NEVER stops).

Well any way the way you had to take on these 2 was that you would run around until one of them shot the other then they would go and waylay on each other. The Mastermind (whose Chaingun NEVER stopped) would shoot the CD. The CD would shoot the MM with 3 missles then walk around a bit before he shot off 3 more missles. During all of this you had to keep shooting the CD otherwise he would kill the MM and then start on YOU!

This brings about the question of Invaders shooting other invaders. If your grenades(or any blast radius weapon for that mattter) hurt your own teammates wouldn't the invaders blast (like those of the kacidemon) hurt it's fellow invaders? And if not can someone make up a decent rule for it to happen that way(rmemebering that an invader did no damage to it's own type).

While i'm asking I would also like to put a request for those of you who "make" new levels for us to play, could ya'll use more exploding barrels. I know it sounds silly but I got quite a bit of satisfaction shooting a barrel that was in a row of other barrels and clearing out the whole room.

Thread: Re: Any news on the reprint?

espen — 2008-05-15T09:20:35+00:00

May 2008, maybe?
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/reprints.html

Thread: Any news on the reprint?

Krisjohn — 2008-05-15T08:14:22+00:00

I believe the expansion hasn't been printed in a while and is very out of stock. Does anyone have any info on the next print, particularly distribution outside the US?

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manowarplayer — 2008-05-12T20:29:33+00:00

DOOM Expansion Corridor Tiles

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Goodsound — 2008-04-15T12:02:05+00:00

French Edition Cover (Press Image)

Thread: Re: DM or CTF for a first time play?

ced1106 — 2008-03-13T23:55:35+00:00

Hmmmmm...

Better find out if they're expecting monsters. If the haven't played Doom, Death Match may be a bit of a let down, since the scenarios lack critters. One random thought is, when a player enters an empty room, to flip a card in the Overlord deck and, if there's a monster, place it in the center of the room. After a player within LOS takes his turn, any monsters in LOS move towards that player and attacks.

aka. Washu! ^O^

Thread: Re: DM or CTF for a first time play?

anubis9 — 2008-03-13T23:49:15+00:00

xIAx Count Zero wrote:
Try my game group's variant of Domination. At the end of each turn (after all players have moved) points are awarded to teams based on how many control points they have. We generaly make the control points frag anyone standing on them at the end of a turn to avoid camping. Try it out we think its a blast...

That sounds AWESOME! I can't wait to try it!

Thread: Re: DM or CTF for a first time play?

xIAx Count Zero — 2008-02-20T21:35:10+00:00

Totaly DM. I play mostly DM now with my friends as we have played all of the scenarios (and FFG hasn't supplied us with an easy to use scenario kit like Descent and Tide Of Iron). I usualy pop some metal in the CD player and use my painted marines and its a rollin good time. I have played CTF a few times and it seems to go OK but there really isn't the sense of crazy CTF when you know exactly where the flag is. Try my game group's variant of Domination. We put colored bottle caps on the board to represent control points(i know kinda ghetto, but im working on some cool pieces) then each team tries to land on one of the control points to claim it. At the end of each turn (after all players have moved) points are awarded to teams based on how many control points they have. We generaly make the control points frag anyone standing on them at the end of a turn to avoid camping. Try it out we think its a blast... especially with added players (we've tried 6 vs. 6 chaos... complete fun chaos)
Count Zero

Thread: Re: DM or CTF for a first time play?

dbc- — 2008-02-20T19:16:00+00:00

I agree with Mike.

Capture the Flag fell flat with my gaming group.
Death Match has always been fun.

Thread: Re: DM or CTF for a first time play?

Mike Zebrowski — 2008-02-20T17:43:01+00:00

Death Match.

Capture the Flag just doesn't work in board games. Capture the flag works in computer games and real life as you don't know where everyone is. You don't know who is guarding the flag, where the ambushes are, or which routes the other team is taking. In board games, you know where everyone is and CTF loses much of its enjoyment.

Thread: DM or CTF for a first time play?

The Barefoot Killer — 2008-02-20T17:18:12+00:00

I've played the scenarios in the base game so I have a good idea how the other modes will play, so this isn't really a question about which is easier to learn. I want to know which mode is more fun for 4-6 players as I'm going to be trying this out tomorrow evening, mostly with people who have never tried Doom (they really like duking it out in RoboRally so I think this should go over just fine).

I've read in another thread that it's hard to score in CTF. I'd also appreciate some houserule recommendations to make sure we get some scoring in if we do choose CTF.

Thread: Re: Time for a scenario with expansion?

kungfro — 2008-02-15T16:27:22+00:00

Or you could play my epic-length scenario. It is obscenely long and may require two play sessions to complete:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/17760/OlympusHorr...

I don't have any short ones. I am a mean, mean invader player :-D

Thread: Playing time with the expansion

espen — 2008-02-13T12:45:07+00:00

The expansion scenarios are shorter (and easier for the marines) than those that come with the base game. Playing time is something like 2 hours 15 min instead of 3 hours. Of course the total playing time depends on the players and their playing style.

New rules - which are already present in FAQ for the base game - don't really affect directly to playing time. (Except for Deathmatch and Capture the Flag rules, which are very different.)

Not happy with scenario length? Then design some of your own! Make yourself a favor and download excellent TileSystem software:
http://members.cox.net/shawnriordan/tilesystem.htm

Thread: Time for a scenario with expansion?

jeff brown — 2008-02-12T16:44:59+00:00

What would the typical time be for a scenario with this expansion?

Thanks,

Jeff Brown

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

franklincobb — 2008-02-07T13:57:29+00:00

Eh, I was in a bad mood when I posted that, so apologies.

But "not a damn thing" is a bit ridiculous. The difficulty cards ALONE shift the balance in whichever way is desired. Those are free, by the way, from FFG's website, so maybe he's right...other than the free mods, the expansion doesn't add balance per se. But it does add a lot of nifty new monsters, scenarios that weren't designed by the chieftans of Hell, and entirely new ways to play with CTF and Deathmatch.

Anyway...carry on.

EDIT: Also, they're not "house rules" if they come from the publisher. Optional, maybe. But "house rules" is a VERY loaded term.

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

kungfro — 2008-02-07T13:34:01+00:00

franklincobb wrote:
StormKnight wrote:
I'd been curious about this myself...the answer it appears, is "not a damn thing".

Just a bunch of house rules you can add in, which will still likely wind the game up imbalanced one way or the other.

Ah, the Geek...where you can always count on informed opinions and conjecture.

Careful, there. This man is a legend over at Arkham Horror town.

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

Balthus_Dire — 2008-02-03T06:36:27+00:00

Rules we use are the "always play with the distribution for 2 players, no matter how many players", and "special ops", which allows the Marines to choose what they want from the deck, one card at a time, pass it around. Adds some nice squad feel (use a sniper, a medic, and a chainsaw warrior--or 3 mad max close combat guys, etc.). Gives the marines much more control over what type of game they want to play.

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

franklincobb — 2008-02-03T06:02:41+00:00

StormKnight wrote:
I'd been curious about this myself...the answer it appears, is "not a damn thing".

Just a bunch of house rules you can add in, which will still likely wind the game up imbalanced one way or the other.

Ah, the Geek...where you can always count on informed opinions and conjecture.

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

Bowmangr — 2008-02-02T12:38:13+00:00

New balanced Invader deck........check
New marine cards.......................check
New, more balanced scenarios...check
Rules errata................................check
Rules mods for balance...............check
Difficulty levels............................check
Balanced Dud cards....................check

Hmmm, yeah, pretty sure nothing changed with the expansion...

It's the same old, boring, unbalanced and unfixable DOOM: The boardgame...
.
.
NOT!!!

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

drplote — 2008-01-25T14:55:01+00:00

Played a solo game last night just to try things out. I used the "get one free ammo when you pick up a new weapon rule", but otherwise I played the game as is. I'll definitely incorporate the "marines choose turn order" one when I play for real though.

I actually had a fairly easy time playing the first scenario (Knee Deep in the Dead) against myself, and I did what I could to kill the marine. Of course, I had an idea of where the exit was, where the BFG was, etc, so I'm sure that contributed.

First turn as Invader I had a card that let me spawn two imps and a zombie. This caused the marine to decide to go out the left exit of the starting area, since they were by the north exit. Next turn I'm able to spawn a chaingun guy, who spawns down the west hallway, cutting the marine off. Led to my first and only frag.

The marine's respawn allowed him to put quite a bit of distance between the glob of enemies, and from there he was basically able to run/blast his way out of any situation. He almost died a few times, but I always managed to get to a health pack when I needed to. It also seemed like I got a lot of spawn cards early, and very few in the mid-late game. And having the BFG going into the last room made it a cakewalk.

I can't be sure since I've only played one game, but I'm guessing I had an easy time because of the Marine cards I randomly drew. I had the one that gave +3 base health, another that let me move 8 squares while advancing (12 + dodge when sprinting), and yet another that let me take 3 attacks and move two squares when unloading. This was a pretty potent combo, as it let me keep distance on the slow-moving enemies while still pumping a lot of bullets into them.

Definitely interested in seeing how it plays out with other marine cards and with more players. I'm also still curious how the balance would change if I added ammo tokens equal to the number of players each time an ammo token appears on the map.

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

Cleitus the Black — 2008-01-24T23:38:18+00:00

drplote wrote:
I guess what I'm asking for is advice on which specific house rules to incorporate to accomplish the balance that people talk about. I know everybody will have a slightly different answer, but I'm curious to hear them.

I'd recommend playing with the rule change in my post above (item #1) as well as the three optional rules listed in item #3. Play a few games like that (and read some strategy articles...the short story is stop spawns by maximizing your line of sight, and stay away from blind corners).

If after the changes above the balance isn't right, then try one of the difficulty cards to further refine.

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

drplote — 2008-01-24T23:32:08+00:00

I guess what I'm asking for is advice on which specific house rules to incorporate to accomplish the balance that people talk about. I know everybody will have a slightly different answer, but I'm curious to hear them.

I just picked up the game the other day and downloaded the rules PDF for the expansion from FFG (the expansion is the the way too, but I don't think I'll have it before I play this weekend). So mainly I was looking for which optional rules to include for better balance.

Also, looking at the scenarios, I find it odd that weapons/ammo/armor don't increase with the number of marines. Monsters go up on the map, but the rest stays unchanged. Has anyone experimented with just dropping a number of ammo counters equal to the number of players (or some such) for the scenarios?

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

dbc- — 2008-01-24T22:36:44+00:00

drplote wrote:
Which of the optional rules bring the better balance?
I would say the entire bunch of optional rules mentioned up to the multiplayer part.
But in the end it all depends on how your group play the game in the first place.

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

avyssaleos — 2008-01-24T21:24:06+00:00

What also changes (and I am surprised no-one mentioned it) is the invader deck. The expansion contains a new one which ommits some of the previous cards and adds a few new ones. This alone changes the game a lot and this is why you see many people (me included) claiming that the game is much more balanced with the expansion.

Some other changes also help a lot (like the 2 card draw rule for the Invader mentioned above) but mostly, it's the new deck.

However keep in mind that the game is still very hard for the marines. As a firend of mine who has played countless games says: "If you play a new scenario the odds are about 70% in favor of the Invader. If you play a scenario you know, the odds become around 50%". As you see, even with the expansion changes, the marines have to work really hard to survive and that is the beauty of this game!

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

StormKnight — 2008-01-24T20:31:07+00:00

I'd been curious about this myself...the answer it appears, is "not a damn thing".

Just a bunch of house rules you can add in, which will still likely wind the game up imbalanced one way or the other.

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

Cleitus the Black — 2008-01-24T20:18:07+00:00

WELCOME TO BGG!

There are several changes and options that can make the game easier for the marine:

1) Rules Changes: Invader gets two cards per turn instead of one per player (easier for three marines as Invader goes through deck slower).

2) Difficulty Cards: There are balance cards (the details of which are not spelled out in the rulebook) with 5 levels of difficulty. The 'middle' card is standard difficulty with standard rules. The 'easier' cards give the marines more starting health and ammo and limit the invaders hand size. The 'harder' cards do the opposite.

3) Optional Rules: Most of the optional rules make the game easier for the marines. My favorites are: Fully Loaded (when you pick up a weapon, you get an ammo), Well Trained (extra skill card, then discard one), Organized Marines (marines decide turn order as in Descent).

Most of all remember: Fire in short, controlled bursts, and watch the corners, Marine!

Thread: Re: What makes the expansion better balanced?

Geosphere — 2008-01-24T20:13:00+00:00

People are referring to the "Difficulty levels".

Thread: What makes the expansion better balanced?

drplote — 2008-01-24T19:12:23+00:00

All over the forums for the original Doom board game, I keep reading that the expansion makes the game better-balanced. Looking at the rule book on FFG's site for the expansion, it looks like other than a few rule clarifications, everything new is optional.

Which of the optional rules bring the better balance?

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pliskin.it — 2008-01-09T15:48:02+00:00

STORM-CON 2007 - 271207 - DOOM DM - Gruppo Play-STORM - Andrea, Christian, Martino, Stefano, Davide e Davide (www.pliskin.it)

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pliskin.it — 2008-01-09T15:43:17+00:00

STORM-CON 2007 - 271207 - DOOM CTF - Gruppo Play-STORM - Andrea, Christian, Martino, Stefano, Davide e Davide (www.pliskin.it)

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pliskin.it — 2008-01-09T15:38:58+00:00

STORM-CON 2007 - 271207 - DOOM DM - Gruppo Play-STORM - Andrea, Christian, Martino, Stefano, Davide e Davide (www.pliskin.it)

Thread: Re: Pistol Mod

Frozen Flesh — 2007-11-28T09:38:14+00:00

Klumpimann wrote:
Hi!

The "Aim"-idea is great. Perhaps I will try this next time we play.

In former sessions I decided to let the marines reroll a bullet roll and if the second result has a bullet, too, one ammo is wasted. This significantly reduces the chance to loose an ammo token and seems fair to me.

Great! Both works good for me. When combined, the pistol is just as useful as any other weapon in the game.
But I don´t like the unlimited ammo mod, because it´s not realistic, and overpowered.

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Froto — 2007-08-29T01:49:48+00:00

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Erhan — 2007-08-13T08:08:02+00:00

organized original box. Using cardboard

Thread: Re: CTF and DM with just two players?

Bowmangr — 2007-08-09T07:20:19+00:00

You can download unofficial Deathmatch & CTF rules from BGG at the DOOM the boardgame page in the files section or you can go at www.fantasyflightgames.com and download the official rules for the DOOM expansion. The rules for DM & CTF are in the manual...

...or buy the expansion...you won't regret it!

Thread: Re: CTF and DM with just two players?

abodi — 2007-08-09T06:35:13+00:00

other than the expansion, where can i get these dm and ctf rules?

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Pensator — 2007-07-30T01:54:08+00:00

Marine without future...

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Pensator — 2007-07-30T01:52:41+00:00

Master vs 6 player's - Chaotic game

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rhox — 2007-05-20T16:15:10+00:00

all the minis from doom the board game expansion

Thread: Re: What's the Area 4 encounter in Scenario VI?

kungfro — 2007-05-13T15:45:09+00:00

I was going to make my 10-scenario campaign be episode 3. I also made an episode 4 of levels I have not released on this site

Thread: PVP variation

Beholm — 2007-04-07T17:32:51+00:00

I have been a fan of Team Fortress for a LONG time. I am trying to figure out how to create the TF experience in the DOOM rules. If anyone has tried this before, I would appreciate help. It will basically be a class-based CTF mod. The classes so far are:

Heavy - Move 4 OR shoot. After firing begins, he has sustain fire (move 1 square and anything in his LOS takes a (dice) attack. Starts with 1 extra armor.

Engineer - May spend 2 MP to create a sentry gun OR ammo dispensor.
Sentry guns can be upgraded (put an armor token on it) to lvl 3. Each lvl adds 1 armor and 1 more die to the attack. Each shot at a Sentry gun that exceeds its armor removes 1 armor. Anyone spending 2 MP can take 1 ammo chit.

Medic - May spend 2 MP to heal a friendly figure by 1, or enemy figure takes damage for each 2 mp spent on it.

Pipe Bomber - May shoot grenades that explode on contact, or place the grenade token by grenade scatter rules. Any time after the token is placed, the bomber may set them off.

Soldier - Shotgun specialist and Chainsaw maniac

Spy - move 8 and attack with pistol only. 1 less armor to start.

I would LOVE any input from the rest of you... TF is a great version of CTF and would be fun to redo.

Oh, and before I go, I have already added the most fun part of TF....
the ROCKET JUMP!!!!

Will post full rules when I get them done.

Thread: Re: Pistol Mod

jellospike — 2007-03-02T13:03:39+00:00

One little gripe I have is: "The pistol is supposed to be small, precise and easy to use." I'm not sure how precise pistols really are -- not at all, to be fair. Short barrel, usually a weaker round, and held in such a way that aiming them is more difficult... Hmm...

Bah! Ever seen a western with Clint Eastwood?

Anyway, at short range a Handgun is definetely more precise than most weapons in the game (grenades, chainsaws, hand-held miniguns, plasma thingies and other BFGs).

Thread: Re: Pistol Mod

nemchenk — 2007-03-02T10:54:28+00:00

We play like this, and I think it works a treat. Makes the pistol that little bit more useful, not just a weapon that no one ever bothers with.

However, we play that Marines need a pistol token just like the other weapons (unlike the Fist and Grenades), and we also have a custom Marine ability card that allows a Marine to fire two pistols at once. This way, one Marine can give their pistol to the "Handgun Specialist" for that little bit more firepower

One little gripe I have is: "The pistol is supposed to be small, precise and easy to use." I'm not sure how precise pistols really are -- not at all, to be fair. Short barrel, usually a weaker round, and held in such a way that aiming them is more difficult... Hmm... But, rerolling them once doesn't make them *that* more accuate, anyway IMHO, that is.

My 2p,

D

Thread: Re: Officer training corp?

kungfro — 2007-01-24T06:52:35+00:00

I think the idea behind Officer granting bonuses to adjacent marines is akin to the idea of a squad falling apart after its leader has been killed. The Officer raises the morale of the troops.

Obviously the card was made before the idea of deathmatch was in the works. So the way the card should work is it grants the bonuses to those pieces who are friendly to the Officer. What good is it tactically if it offers its bonus to opponents just because the rules don't specify otherwise?

Thread: Re: Officer training corp?

Wrayman — 2007-01-22T01:30:03+00:00

I remember no particular rules to deal with that card when playing a free for all deathmatch. I suppose I would just remove the card from play in that circumstance.

Thread: Officer training corp?

Vedalikt — 2007-01-22T01:09:30+00:00

Having played the main game the crd officer is a useful card for your fellow marines.

Now in the expansion your a one man army with trying to kill what you used to call as friends.

we have a rules dilema with the card officer.which way should you play it.

In death match:

1. have any marine player get the bonus if with in range

Or

2. Have only your self be affected by the card as the other "Marines" are your enemy?

i can guess in capture the flag that your fellow team mates do get the bonus but your enemy again doesn't.

I only ask as i can not find it in the rules and its not a card that is cancelled.

Cheers

Neil

Thread: Re: Usefulness of Lithe?

kungfro — 2007-01-18T07:45:37+00:00

ibn_ul_khattab wrote:
On a side note does anyone think efficient killer is stupid? I guess a lot of powers are very good so it is probably not Op, but in my game the entire team is either immune to cards I play during their turn, or immune to dud, very frustrating as the invader player. They almost never run out of ammo anymore. (1 uses the chainsaw, 1 has efficient killer the other is immune to cards played on him)

That's probably why it has an added bonus to range and damage on shell weapons. It's not a great card most of the time, but when you're low on or out of ammo (or if there are so many players that ammo is scarce), it's priceless. If you're playing a new marine in a level that doesn't give any new weapons for a while, it's nice to have unlimited ammo on your pistol until you can get one.

Thread: Re: Usefulness of Lithe?

Wraith — 2007-01-11T02:14:14+00:00

kungfro wrote:
-Monsters can block you
Just how you can block trites, a monster can just chill on a grate and prevent you from using it.
I think this "flaw" is rather exaggerated. If the invader player puts figures on ducts to stop the Lithe marine using them, those figures aren't hurting the marines in any other way. Each figure used this way is almost effectively a free kill, with the marine having to do nothing to keep the invader out of the fight. Or, to look at it another way, each monster occupied this way is a spawn card negated, because the invader player is very unlikely to be able to use scenario-placed monsters that way. (Marines tend to kill scenario-placed monsters, rather than leaving them behind.)

Not that I think that Lithe is as generally useful as some of the other cards (some of which are very powerful), but it isn't useless, either.

Thread: Re: Usefulness of Lithe?

ibn_ul_khattab — 2007-01-10T23:13:26+00:00

wow awesome thanks for the advice on lithe. It is terrible, but giving extra 2 movement help a lot. It isn't perhaps that awful. I have seen it be used well a couple times, but generally it never gets used.

On a side note does anyone think efficient killer is stupid? I guess a lot of powers are very good so it is probably not Op, but in my game the entire team is either immune to cards I play during their turn, or immune to dud, very frustrating as the invader player. They almost never run out of ammo anymore. (1 uses the chainsaw, 1 has efficient killer the other is immune to cards played on him)

Thread: Re: Usefulness of Lithe?

kungfro — 2007-01-10T22:39:43+00:00

Don't even try justifying Lithe. It's hands-down the worst marine ability for these reasons:

-You can only use it to move towards revealed grates
If you open a new room and there's a grate deep into it this could be cool. And backtracking to old ammo and stuff is nice, but it's very rarely used these ways.
-Monsters can block you
Just how you can block trites, a monster can just chill on a grate and prevent you from using it.
-It closes the gap between "Marine only" abilities and "Invader only" abilities. I did not like this card from the moment I saw it. And subsequent play has made the marines hate it. The only thing worse than a Lithe card is a Prepared card that's lost its uses.

A great way to make Lithe useful is to make it give the marines 2 additional movement a turn, no matter what they do. This way even if they're not grate-hopping, they can still get a bonus to movement. And if they do use a grate, it's effectively at no expense of movement to a normal marine's.

Also, because Medic was pretty terrible, I modded it this way: the command can heal 1 wound OR 1 broken armor (my mods can sometimes break base armor), and a Medic marine can pick up and carry up to 1 Health Pack token, using 1 movement point to use it on an adjacent marine and 0 to use it on himself.

Thread: Re: Usefulness of Lithe?

Wraith — 2007-01-07T04:38:44+00:00

Hordes of trites amassing to swarm through ducts when a marine leaves himself vulnerable? Pop through a grate, wipe them out, return. It doesn't have to be the same grate the trites are planning to use.

Died, and have to respawn way back because the next area isn't revealed yet? Spawn on top of a duct, and with one movement point you're back with the other marines.

If you take a frag, and there are invaders amassing somewhere distant, spawn where the invaders are, kill them with a well-placed grenade, then rejoin the other marines with a shortcut through a duct.

Bypass damaging obstacles. I once saw a marine with one health marker use Lithe to get past a damaging obstacle to reach medpacks.

It's all about tactical options. Sure, the invader can cut down those options by putting invader figures on ducts, but doing that often keeps figures out of the action when they could otherwise be hurting marines.

Thread: Usefulness of Lithe?

Konrad von Richtmark — 2007-01-07T03:27:01+00:00

While appearing a neat ability at first sight (imagine a chainsaw commando surfacing in the midst of a horde of monsters), what's the actual use of a scuttling marine? What would stop an invader from standing on the duct to stop the marine from surfacing? I haven't picked up the expansion yet, can anyone with any actual experience of this skill comment?

Thread: Re: New ability question

Konrad von Richtmark — 2007-01-07T03:23:36+00:00

While a marine making a judo throw on a Hell Knight might not sound overly realistic, it's practically only the big invaders there's any point in doing it to. Zombies are too insignificant to be bothered tossing around (why not just blast the stupid zombie at once?). Whereas throwing a big baddie can be used to put it somewhere where another marine can more easily deal with it, such as unloading the shotgun into its face.

Thread: Re: CTF and DM with just two players?

pauld895 — 2006-12-27T19:54:22+00:00

Team deathmatch is a blast with each player controlling 3 Marines - whereas the main game requires a major time commitment this can really zip along (once you have set up of course).

Rated

Thread: Doom: The Boardgame Expansion Set: my view.

RobM — 2006-09-25T19:10:35+00:00

Doom: The Boardgame: Expansion Set: my view.

Preamble
I’ve written about a dozen reviews now and I thought it was about time to tackle a large job: simultaneous reviews of Doom: The Boardgame, Doom: the boardgame expansion and Descent. This opening paragraph is common to all three reviews so feel free to skip if you are reading it again! Firstly, some background about me since my feelings about each of these games are best viewed in context. I’m a long time science fiction and fantasy fan, having begun playing Traveller and Dungeons and Dragons in the late 70s. Since then I’ve played a huge number of RPGs, miniature games and boardgames, with the latter becoming the mainstay of my hobby for the last 3 or 4 years. Conversely, I loathe computer games. I’ve played a few but I generally get bored pretty quickly and soon start to hanker after the social interaction that I get from sitting round a boardgame with friends.

Buying this expansion was a no-brainer for me. I already loved Doom: the Boardgame and this promised to both solve a couple of niggles with that game, and introduce more chrome to play with! This review assumes that the reader knows the basics of Doom, but if you don’t please check out one of the reviews of that game, whether mine or somebody else’s.

Components.
The expansion set comes with a rules and scenario booklet that is longer than the two booklets in the original game combined. It is well laid out and illustrated, and includes rules clarifications, new rules and optional ‘mods’. There are also three more of the excellent thick cardboard marine equipment bins, and a small number of additional rooms and corridors, including airless terrain and airlocks. There are 3 new marine figures plus more than 30 new invader miniatures. There are 6 new types of invader, with 5 new monster abilities. There are reference sheet addenda to cover new invaders and weapons. There are new marine cards to add to the existing deck, replacement (improved) dud cards, and a new set of invader cards that can be played instead of the existing ones if you wish (these are not intended to be shuffled together). There are also difficulty cards that allow the difficulty level to be tweaked, making things easier or more difficult for the marines. Additional tokens are provided, including new (corrected) berserk tokens plus new props, weapons, player turn tokens etc. Some of the new tokens (and marines miniatures) are for playing the new Deathmatch and Capture the Flag variants (see below). As with the original game, I have to give the components 10 out of 10 because they are simply awesome!

Gameplay.
The basic gameplay is the same as Doom, but with some additional or replacement parts. There are also rules for Deathmatch and Capture the Flag variants. There are a variety of new invaders that can be used as equivalent replacements for the original invaders. There are new airless terrain areas that require oxygen tokens in order to survive. These areas are separated by airlocks rather than doors. New props exist such as flame jets (turn on and off and can burn marines), invisibility tokens, megasphere (powerful healing) and sentry bots (help marines) and the Soul Cube (unique and powerful weapon). There are new berserk tokens (which actually have different sides, unlike the original ones) and more marine cards. The invader player can choose to use the new deck or the original (but not a mixture) as well as choosing the pool of invaders that will be available for that scenario. The new invader abilities are: agile (allows dodging); double attack; flying; soul drain (success is immediate kill, healing the attacker 3 wounds); telekinesis (target every space in LOS with an enemy).

The Deathmatch rules allow up to 6 marines to play against each other, scoring frag tokens for each kill. Players choose a map (which is laid out in its entirety at the beginning) and a frag limit for victory (helps to control game length), and then assemble an equipment pool. Players receive 2 armour and 5 wound tokens and are then dealt two marine cards but must choose to keep one (note that several card types are removed from the deck for Deathmatch play). Players take turns to place their marines and then use the invader deck as a timer (discarding two cards per round… game ends when deck exhausted). When a marine lands on an equipment token, it is not removed. Instead, the player checks the equipment pool to see if that item is available. Health tokens heal marines to full wounds and ammo tokens are not used. There are also special equipment areas called vaults that require security keys to open. If any player reaches the frag point for victory, they win immediately, otherwise the player with most frag tokens when the game ends is the winner.

The Capture the Flag variant is similar to Deathmatch but two teams aim to grab flags from the opposing team’s base and take it to their own base. A frag token is scored any time both flags are at one team’s base.

So What Do I Think?
There were a couple of very minor niggles with Doom that are immediately fixed with the expansion: berserk tokens (which were broken in the original) and Dud cards (which personally I didn’t have a problem with). That said, this expansion is a must buy if you like Doom because it makes a great game even better. The addition of more variety (terrain, scenarios, monsters etc) gives more options and increased game longevity. For instance, I love the sentry bots and flame jets, even though these are relatively minor additions. However, it is the addition of two new modes of play that really make this expansion shine. Being able to forget the invader player and play marine-on-marine deathmatch with up to 6 players is fantastic, as is being able to team up for capture the flag. The difficulty cards are also quite useful…I like my Doom fast, furious and deadly for the marines (see my review) so I like the ‘ultraviolence’ or ‘nightmare’ difficulty levels. Similarly, with younger players or newbies, there might be the odd occasion when I’d make it easier for the marines. Overall, it’s an 8.5 out of 10 for me.

Thread: Re: What is added with the Expansion?

MrSkeletor — 2006-09-09T01:31:17+00:00

The doom expansion is great but you dont need it.
Go to FFG website and download the expansion rules, its got a bunch of mods at the back. Use the ones you like.